How I Did on My 2018 Reading Goals & The Year’s Cover Trends

The year-end coverage continues!

So, how did I do with the 2018 reading goals I set for myself about this time last year? Rather poorly! is the short answer.

• I only read one book that might be considered a travel classic (by Patrick Leigh Fermor), though I did read some modern travel books.
• I only read Ali and the first half of a biography of May Sarton. What I’d envisioned being a monthly biography feature on the blog turned into a one-off.
• I need to work out my literature in translation percentage and compare it to last year’s to see if I’ve improved at all.

However, I do feel that I did well at reading my own books, as boosted by my 20 Books of Summer being chosen exclusively from my own shelves. Once I’m back from America I’ll have to do another full inventory and see how many unread books are still in the house, as compared to the 327 at this time last year.

Out of my 31 most anticipated reads of the second half of the year, I read 20 (of which 5 were at least somewhat disappointing), abandoned 2, still have 2 to read, lost interest in 1, have 1 in progress, and can’t find 5. For the whole year, the statistics are at 38/61 read (13 disappointments = more than 1/3 – that’s really bad and needs to be fixed!), 7 DNF, 4 still to read, 9 not found, 2 lost interest, and 1 in progress.

As for my non-reading-related goal … my accordion-playing fell by the wayside in July because I went away to America for three weeks unexpectedly, and after that never got back into the habit of daily practice and biweekly lessons the other side of Reading. I’d still like to pick it back up in the near future. I was at a point where I knew five notes and a few bass chords and could play both hands on a number of very simple tunes.

The poor cat was alarmed at yet another folk instrument entering his abode.

 

This Year’s Cover Trends

Mostly flora, which I noticed before 2018 had even begun.

The other one that kept jumping out at me was rubber gloves. Weird!

 

 

I’ll be back on the 26th to begin the countdown of my favorite books of the year, starting with nonfiction.

 

Merry Christmas!